When allies of President Trump and Bernie Sanders begin to woo moderate voters it can get kind of scary

The Republican opening salvo in the Florida governor's race is to paint Andrew Gillum as an anti-Israel candidate intent on converting Florida into socialist Venezuela.

Meanwhile, Democrats mock the Republican nominee as a mini-me of President Donald Trump, who would bring his bare-knuckle brand of politics and policy to the Sunshine State.

Welcome to Florida’s base election. The two parties nominated candidates from their left and right wings and now turn their attention to wooing the moderates. With sharp partisan attacks, they are trying to convince the nearly 30 percent of registered voters who reject both the Democratic and Republican party labels.

Gillum is on the left. Republican Ron DeSantis is on the right. Polls indicate the race is a statistical tie. In politically-purple Florida, the independent, no-party affiliated voter gets to play kingmaker in November. And while both DeSantis and Gillum will try to frame their opponent as someone who is totally unacceptable to Florida, they do so in different ways.

DeSantis came out firing

Since the Aug. 28 primary, the DeSantis camp has called Gillum a socialist, anti-Israel and weak on the environment. Gillum played his cards close to the chest. Initially, he let the Democratic Party attack DeSantis on clean water votes, women’s health issues and his close ties to the president. Then he went on CNN and said DeSantis lacked a vision for Florida.

The candidates themselves provide a mostly blank canvas for the campaigns to cover with allegations and innuendos. Both are relatively young. Both are 39 years old. Both have spent their careers in relative obscurity. One is the capital city mayor, the other a former congressman from a sleepy Atlantic beach town.

Until recently, they were rarely in the state-wide news, so their records are mostly unknown to a significant percentage of Floridians. Add to that, Florida is a state of newcomers. Fewer than half of residents were born here and are not well versed on Florida issues.

“We are getting a thousand new people a day into Florida, whoever wins that guy – the retiree from New York or Michigan wins,” said Tallahassee pollster Steve Vancore. “And, remember, Obama won that guy big!”

About a million people have moved to the state since the last governor’s election – which was decided by 64,000 votes.

Different visions

So, Democrats want voters to think DeSantis is unprepared to govern while DeSantis counters that Gillum is so far out of step with Florida he may as well be from another planet.

At a unity rally at the Bay of Pigs Museum and Library in Miami Monday, Sen. Marco Rubio panned Gillum's economic agenda and said Latinos know first-hand how a far-left ideology is a threat to freedom.

“No community in America understands freedom as well as ours. And I don’t just say ‘ours’ anymore as far as Cuban-Americans,” said Rubio. “If you come from Nicaragua, if you come from Venezuela, you know what it’s like to have your freedom taken as well.”

Gillum corralled urban youth, suburban progressives and college-age voters around an economic platform that includes support for a $15-minimum wage, Medicaid expansion and a 2-percent hike in the corporate tax to pay for a boost in the public education budget.

It's not socialism by the definition found in dictionaries or used by political scientists.

“But there is enough there to make it stick,” said Aubrey Jewett, a University of Central Florida political scientist. “He is supported by people who self-proclaim themselves as socialists. It’s a tool DeSantis can use.”

And he does, with language that hearkens back to the Red Scare of the 1950s and dovetails with President Trump's Make America Great slogan.

Those messages might resonate with economic and political refugees and middle-class voters receptive to DeSantis' warning that Gillum's policies would put at risk the gains Florida has posted since the Great Recession.

Democratic political operatives say the warnings come from a well-worn GOP political playbook.

“They are experts at negative campaigning. They’ve been doing it for a hundred years. First the Wobblies, then women, then the Commies. They are always against something,” said Jon Ausman, a former Democratic state committeeman, adding the tactic works at convincing citizens to vote against their own economic self-interest.

“I’m just ecstatic of what DeSantis is saying and his knowledge on the issues,” said Altman, who sponsored the Everglades Restoration bill two years ago. He decided to endorse DeSantis because of the congressman’s record on the environment and his support for the space industry.

Different lines of attack

DeSantis’ opening volley was an emotionally-driven assault aimed at voters in an area where Gillum did surprisingly well in the primary, southeast Florida, home to many economic and political refugees.

According to Democratic insiders, Gillum’s calculus to victory includes running up the score in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties to counter DeSantis’ strength in southwest Florida and the panhandle.

“If Gillum underperforms in the Southeast he won’t win,” said Matt Isbell, of MCI Maps, which analyzes polls and data from races across the nation. “His strategy for the northwest is to not get decimated there like Charlie Crist did in 2014. However, Gillum absolutely must rack up huge margins in the southeast.”

DeSantis doesn’t have to win the Democratic strongholds in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. He just needs to limit Gillum’s victory margins.

A significant number of Jewish voters live in the three counties as well. Not surprisingly, as the campaign moved up the coast from the Bay of Pigs Museum, the talk turned from socialism to anti-Semitism.

DeSantis expressed concerns about Gillum’s ties to groups that support boycotts of Israel.

“In all my years in Florida, I’ve never seen a candidate for state office who has been as anti-Israel as Andrew Gillum,” DeSantis told the Washington Free Beacon. “His anti-Israel views are part and parcel of his overall far left wing, Democrat socialist agenda. He doesn’t share the values of the vast majority of the people in Florida with his position.”

Gillum defends his economic plan as a more fair deal for workers and Wednesday said DeSantis has yet to formulate a vision for the state of Florida.

“He was a near guarantee to win his primary and still didn’t think about why he’s running for governor and what he wants to do for the people of the state of Florida,” Gillum said in a CNN interview.

DeSantis released his environmental platform in a statement that questioned Gillum’s environmental record, which the Republican nominee claims included support for a coal plant as a Tallahassee City Commissioner and a failed solar farm that may be part of an FBI public corruption probe of Gillum allies.

Tallahassee protesters say they are not buying DeSantis' record on jobs and the environment.(Photo: James Call)

But surrogates for the Tallahassee mayor say those attacks are designed to provoke one emotion among likely voters.

“Fear, it’s their game plan. Scare the middle. Scare everybody,” said Rep. Evan Jenne, D-Broward. “Whatever region of the state they are in, whatever is most feared there they will say Andrew Gillum is part of. That’s the game plan.”

But Republicans say it's all about the candidates' records.

“We have the Indian River Lagoon and its algae problems, and we have the space program. (DeSantis) worked those issues in Washington and they are issues all Floridians care about,” said Altman.

While the latest polls indicate the two candidates are in a statistical tie, election supervisors prepared mail-in ballots for absentee voters.

Ballots for the November election will be in the mail on Saturday, Sept.22. Early voting begins four weeks later.